John Fallon: FAI need to face Leinster House questions head on

FAI chief executive officer David Courell. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

IF Ireland’s wingers had exhibited the dexterity shown in recent days by their FAI overlords, the World Cup campaign wouldn’t be already on life support.

There was a whiff of Lanigan’s Ball about the frenzied and contorted method of the association eventually coming to their senses and being dutiful guests of an Oireachtas committee today.

That the final surrender yesterday came with a denial of disrespect, four days on from the committee’s intentions being “doubted” amid a snub, underlined how much ground their delegation must claw back at the lunchtime sitting.

Without even kicking a ball, to borrow the game’s parlance, the FAI are chasing a deficit when they lock eyes across the United Nations-style room at their paymasters.

This is the third bout of interrogation undertaken by elected officials of FAI governance in the past six years.

Firstly, there was the infamous stonewalling by John Delaney of the Public Accounts Committee in 2019 as his empire was crumbling beneath him.

Either side of Christmas 2023 came the demise of his chief executive successor Jonathan Hill but the most noteworthy aspect was that visit was the initial delay in furnishing documentation and the abundance of redactions.

There’s been comedic elements to this quest despite the origins being so serious.

It stems from the Girls in Green exposé of July 2024, detailing historical cases of abuse on female footballers.

Within 12 hours of that joint investigation by RTÉ and the Sunday Independent being aired, the FAI were out front and centre expressing their shock at the revelations.

Yet an email chain that was subsequently presented in the Dáil only three months ago suggested an awareness by the FAI of allegations dating back to 2023.

Cathal Dervan, who earlier this year left his role as public relations director, has complained internally of the association being too slow to act on the intelligence it had access to.

This was the initial basis upon which FAI officials were requested to come before the committee with responsibility for sport.

Had they accepted this invitation in July, rather than snub it by citing an ongoing An Garda Síochána investigation arising from the documentary, then its likely events would have moved on by now.

Instead, the stubbornness has both served to frustrate a panel led by chairman Alan Kelly and allow time for a smorgasbord of other FAI controversies to erupt in the interim.

Where do we start?

Chiefly, there’s a live civil action lodged by Eileen Gleeson, a potential landmark case if it adjudicates that the women’s team manager is entitled to pay parity with the men’s team boss.

Even if that aspect doesn’t succeed, and experts believe it won’t on business grounds, there were a slew of other gaps raised in the submission which question the notion of equal treatment across the senior teams’ operations.

A recent boast by the FAI about their superiority by European standards when it comes to investment in the women’s team hasn’t been backed up with data yet.

Gleeson’s claims, in themselves, are sufficiently explosive but the oddity is that she is suing her current employers.

Despite being relieved of her duties, alongside assistant Colin Healy, last December, she activated a fallback clause to remain within the organisation’s employment.

That entailed several months of veritable gardening leave until she recently returned to the office in a newly-created role as head of football strategic insights and planning.

Her desire to accept an invitation to today’s meeting was quashed by what she branded a directive from the FAI’s HR department.

Gleeson was on the Irish women’s football beat when these alleged cases took place in the early 1990s.

What has also unravelled since the deferral is a redundancy programme which could conclude with up to a third fewer of the current 245-workforce.

Siptu will use industrial action to oppose compulsory layoffs among the low to middle paid bracket of workers unless they are presented with a robust business case.

Excessive FAI spending on other areas will be scrutinised by the cross-party range of TDs and senators.

It has been hammered home at every opportunity that inquisitors won’t veer into any personal live investigations, not that any charges have been brought.

All that excuse has generated is frustration at what committee members deem a smokescreen.

Contortions around the FAI’s engagement can be correlated to the minister for sport Patrick O’Donovan getting involved on Monday morning, rubbishing the reasons tabled for the rejection.

There ought to be enough brainpower around the board table, including ex-Uisce Éireann chairman Tony Keohane and Robert Watt, secretary general within the department of health, to have realised the risk of disobeying City Hall.

The FAI has never been so reliant on State aid – that’s the present, never mind the upcoming plea for €8m-per-annum of academy funding – so to bite the hand that feeds justifiably caused bemusement.

Only the boxing federation among the sporting organisations has attracted this level of opprobrium, a pattern undimmed since the Delaney era.

For the game’s sake, it’s high time they dispensed with the footwork and kept their limbs firmly intact when asked to account for a mess of their own making.

FAI could face Israeli decision next year

While Uefa are facing increased pressure to expel Israeli teams from their competition, the FAI have a 25% chance of being confronted with a major decision next year.

Uefa Nations League categories for the 2026/7 version have already been decided, with Israel and Ireland together in League B.

Further subsets are framed by ranking, placing Israel in pot one and Ireland in three. Northern Ireland are in pot four.

Ireland have a World Cup campaign, albeit a dwindling one, to negotiate first but until Fifa or Uefa impose sanctions, the prospect of Ireland being drawn with Israel in early 2026 is live.

FAI chiefs recently batted away questions on their stance over the nation found by the United Nations commission to be committing genocide in the Gaza and West Bank regions.

Qatar, powerbrokers in the footballing ecosystem, have been calling for action by the authorities, ramped up by the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha earlier this month.

Talk of Uefa’s executive committee voting to replicate the expulsion of Russia have been dismissed but their next meeting, on December 3, may bring matters to a head. Maccabi Tel Aviv will be midway through their Europa League campaign by that juncture.

Melia 'keeps tabs' on Spurs and Bergvall

Domestic commitments prevent Mason Melia from constantly tracking his next club, Tottenham Hotspur, but the presence of Lucas Bergvall does pique his interest.

The €1.9m St Patrick’s Athletic striker is in the position Bergvall was last year, subject to a pre-contract deal revolving around his 18th birthday.

Since Spurs shelled out €10m for the Swede, beating off competition from Barcelona, he’s become the club's second-youngest Premier League scorer and helped them win the Europa League.

There are no guarantees of the Londoners having a similar fast-tracking plan for their Irish import when he joins on January 1 but he could be heading to England with a second FAI Cup winners’ medal by the age of 18.

Melia celebrated reaching adulthood on Monday by bagging a brace in the 4-0 cakewalk over Cork City, a dress rehearsal for Friday week’s Cup semi.

It swelled his season tally to 14, with five league games and potentially two Cup ties left to usurp Pádraig Amond for the Golden Boot.

“You have to think about all that stuff before you even sign for a club,” Melia said about the sight of fellow teens in Thomas Frank’s set-up.

“There's obviously reasons why I'm going to Tottenham. It’s where I feel most comfortable.

“Tottenham is a big club, but I must work hard to get to his (Bergvall’s) level.

“I don't watch Spurs all the time, to be honest, because I’m busy myself, but I keep tabs on them.”